UNDISCOVERED INGREDIENTS: TOKYO

The best ingredients aren't always the ones you know. Sometimes they're hiding in plain sight — on the shelf of a Japanese grocery, in a ceramic jar at a Ginza speakeasy, or growing wild in the mountains outside Kyoto.

We spent a week in Tokyo visiting bartenders who are quietly building cocktails around ingredients that most Western bars have never heard of. What we found was a masterclass in curiosity — the kind of relentless ingredient hunting that turns a good bartender into an unforgettable one.

First: yuzu kosho. Not yuzu juice — yuzu kosho. It's a fermented paste made from yuzu zest, chilli, and salt. A tiny dot on the rim of a Patron Silver Margarita adds a savoury, citrus heat that lime alone can't touch. One bartender described it as 'the ingredient that makes people stop mid-sip and ask what's in this.'

Then there's shiso — both green and red varieties. Green shiso is herbaceous and bright, a natural partner for Patron Silver in a highball. Red shiso is earthier, almost berry-like, and makes a stunning syrup that turns Patron Reposado cocktails a deep crimson.

Sansho pepper was the real revelation. It's not hot — it's electric. A tingly, numbing spice that wakes up the palate without burning it. Muddled lightly into a Patron Anejo Old Fashioned, it adds a buzzing complexity that oak and agave alone can't achieve.

Kuromitsu — Japanese black sugar syrup — brings a deep, molasses-like sweetness that's less cloying than simple syrup and infinitely more interesting. And umeboshi, the salty-sour pickled plum, works as a cocktail garnish that challenges everything you think you know about what belongs in a drink.

The lesson from Tokyo isn't about Japanese ingredients specifically. It's about the practice of looking beyond the obvious — of finding undiscovered flavours in unfamiliar places and bringing them back to your bar with intention and respect.